Client/Developer Partnership
Excellent software products are the result of a well-executed design based on excellent requirements.
High-quality requirements result from effective communication and collaboration between developers and
customers— a partnership. Too often, the relationship between development and customers (or customer
surrogates, such as marketing) becomes adversarial. Customer or development managers who override
user-supplied requirements to suit their own agenda can also generate friction. No one benefits in these
situations.
A collaborative effort can work only when all parties involved know what they need to be successful, and
when they understand and respect what their collaborators need to be successful. As project pressures
rise, it is easy to forget that all stakeholders share a common objective: to build a successful software
product that provides overall business value, user satisfaction, and developer fulfillment.
The Requirements Bill of Rights for Software Customers lists ten expectations that customers can
legitimately place on their interactions with analysts and developers during the project’s requirements
engineering activities. Each of these rights implies a corresponding responsibility on the part of the
software developers or analysts. The Requirements Bill of Responsibilities for Software Customers lists
ten responsibilities of the customer to the developer during the requirements process. If you prefer, you
could phrase these as a developer’s bill of rights.
REQUIREMENTS BILL OF RIGHTS FOR SOFTWARE CUSTOMERS
You have the right to:
1. Expect analysts to speak your language.
2. Expect analysts to learn about your business and your objectives for the system.
3. Expect analysts to structure the information you present during requirements elicitation into a written
software requirements specification.
4. Have developers explain all work products created from the requirements process.
5. Expect developers to treat you with respect and to maintain a collaborative and professional attitude
throughout your interactions.
6. Have developers provide you with ideas and alternatives both for your requirements and for
implementation of the product.
7. Describe characteristics of the product that will make it easy and enjoyable to use.
8. Be presented with opportunities to adjust your requirements to permit reuse of existing software
components.
9. Be given good-faith estimates of the costs, impacts, and trade-offs when you request a change in the
requirements.
10. Receive a system that meets your functional and quality needs, to the extent that those needs have
been communicated to the developers and agreed on.
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REQUIREMENTS BILL OF RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SOFTWARE CUSTOMERS
You have the responsibility to:
1. Educate analysts about your business and define business jargon.
2. Spend the time it takes to provide requirements, clarify them, and iteratively flush them out.
3. Be specific and precise when providing input about the system’s requirements.
4. Make timely decisions about requirements when requested to do so.
5. Respect a developer’s assessment of the cost and feasibility of requirements.
6. Set priorities for individual requirements, system features, or use cases.
7. Review requirements documents and prototypes.
8. Communicate changes to the project requirements as soon as you know about them.
9. Follow the development organization’s defined process for requesting requirements changes.
10. Respect the processes the developers use for requirements engineering.
These rights and responsibilities apply directly to customers when the software is being developed for
internal corporate use, under contract, or for a known set of major customers. For mass-market product
development, the rights and responsibilities are more applicable to customer surrogates such as the
marketing department.
As part of project planning, the customer and development participants should review these two lists and
reach a meeting of the minds. Busy customers might prefer not to become intimately involved in
requirements engineering (that is, they shy away from Responsibility #2). Lack of customer involvement
greatly increases the risk of building the wrong product. Make sure the key participants in requirements
development understand and accept their responsibilities. If you encounter some sticking points,
negotiate to reach a clear understanding regarding your responsibilities to each other. This understanding
can reduce friction later, when one party expects something that the other is not willing or able to provide.
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REQUIREMENTS BILL OF RIGHTS FOR SOFTWARE CUSTOMERS
Right #1: To expect analysts to speak your language
Requirements discussions should center on your business needs and tasks, using your business
vocabulary, which you might have to convey to the analysts. You shouldn’t have to wade through
computer jargon when talking with analysts.
Right #2: To have analysts learn about your business and objectives
By interacting with users while eliciting requirements, the analysts can better understand your business
tasks and how the product fits into your world. This will help developers design software that truly meets~
your needs and satisfies your expectations. To help educate developers or analysts, consider inviting
them to observe what you or your peers do on the job. If the system being built is replacing an existing
application, the developers should use the current system as you use it. This will help them see how the
current application works, how it fits into your workflow, and where it can be improved.
Right #3: To expect analysts to write a software requirements specification
The analyst will sort through all the information you and other customers provide to separate actual user
needs from business requirements and rules, functional requirements, quality goals, solution ideas, and
other bits of information. The ultimate product from this analysis is a software requirements specification.
The SRS constitutes the agreement between developers and customers on the content of the product
that is going to be built. The SRS should be structured and written in a way that you find easy to read and
understand. You can review these written specifications to make sure they accurately and completely
represent your requirements. A high-quality SRS greatly increases the chance of the developers building
what you really need.
Right #4: To receive explanations of requirements work products
The analyst might represent the requirements using various diagrams that complement the textual SRS.
These alternative views of the requirements are valuable because sometimes graphics are a clearer
medium for expressing some aspects of system behavior, such as workflow. While you probably won’t be
familiar with these diagrams, they aren’t difficult to understand. You can expect analysts to explain the
purpose of each diagram or other requirements development work product, what the notations mean, and
how to examine the diagram for errors and inconsistencies.
Right #5: To expect developers to treat you with respect
Requirements discussions can be frustrating if users and developers don’t understand each other.
Working together can open the eyes of both groups to the problems faced by the other. Customers who
participate in the requirements development process have the right to have developers treat them with
respect and to appreciate the time you are investing in project success. Similarly, demonstrate respect for
the developers as they work with you toward your common objective of a successful project.
Right #6: To hear ideas and alternatives for requirements and their implementation
Often, customers present as “requirements” ideas that are actually possible implementation solutions.
The analyst will try to probe beneath these solutions to understand the real business issues and needs
that must be addressed. Analysts should explore ways your existing systems don’t fit well with your
current business processes, to make sure the product doesn’t automate ineffective or inefficient
processes. Analysts who thoroughly understand the business domain can sometimes suggest
improvements in your business processes. An experienced and creative analyst also adds value by
proposing ways that new software could provide valuable capabilities the users haven’t even envisioned.
Right #7: To describe characteristics that make the product easy to use
You can expect analysts to ask you about characteristics of the software that go beyond your functional
needs. These characteristics, or quality attributes, make the software easier or more pleasant to use,
allowing you to accomplish your tasks more accurately and efficiently. For example, customers
sometimes state that the product must be “user-friendly” or “robust” or “efficient,” but this is too subjective
to help the developers. Instead, the analysts should inquire about specific characteristics that mean user-
friendly, robust, or efficient to the customer.
Right #8: To be presented with opportunities to adjust requirements to permit reuse
Requirements are often somewhat flexible. The analyst might be aware of existing software components
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that come close to addressing some need you described. In such a case, the analyst should present you
with the option of modifying your requirements so the developers can reuse some existing software when
they construct the new system. If you can adjust your requirements when sensible reuse opportunities are
available, this can save time and money that would otherwise be needed to build precisely what the
original requirement specified. Some requirements flexibility is essential if you want to incorporate
commercial off-the-shelf components into your product, as they will rarely have precisely the
characteristics you have in mind.
Right #9: To be given good-faith estimates of the costs of changes
People sometimes make different choices when they know one alternative is more expensive than
another. Estimates of the impact and cost of a proposed change in the requirements are necessary to
make good business decisions about which requested changes to approve. You have the right to expect
developers to present good-faith estimates of impact, cost, and trade-offs, using an analytical process.
Developers must not inflate the estimated cost of a change just because they don’t want to implement it.
Right #10: To receive a system that meets your functional and quality needs
Everyone desires this outcome for the project. It can happen only if you clearly communicate all the
information that will let developers build the product that satisfies your needs and if developers clearly
communicate options and constraints. Be sure to state any assumptions or implicit expectations you
might hold. Otherwise, the developers probably can’t address them to your satisfaction.
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REQUIRMENTS BILL OF RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SOFTWARE CUSTOMERS
Responsibility #1: To educate analysts about your business
Analysts depend on you to educate them about your business concepts and terminology. The intent is not
to transform analysts into domain experts, but to help them understand your problems and objectives.
Don’t expect analysts to grasp the nuances and implicit aspects of your business. Analysts aren’t likely to
be aware of knowledge that you and your peers take for granted.
Responsibility #2: To spend the time to provide and clarify requirements
Customers are busy people, and those of you who are involved in developing requirements are often
among the busiest. Nonetheless, you have a responsibility to invest time in workshops, brainstorming
sessions, interviews, or other requirements-elicitation activities. Sometimes the analyst might think she
understands a point you made, only to realize later that she needs further clarification. Please be patient
with this iterative approach to developing and refining the requirements, as it is the nature of complex
human communication and a key to software success.
Responsibility #3: To be specific and precise about requirements
Writing clear, precise requirements is difficult. It is tempting to leave the requirements vague and fuzzy
because pinning down details is tedious and time-consuming. At some point during development, though,
someone will have to resolve the ambiguities and imprecisions. You are most likely the best person to
make those decisions. Otherwise, you’re relying on the developers to guess correctly.
It’s fine to temporarily include TBD (to be determined) markers in the requirements specification,
indicating that additional research, analysis, or information is needed. Sometimes, though, TBD is used
because a specific requirement is difficult to resolve and no one wants to tackle it. Do your best to clarify
the intent of each requirement, so the analyst can express it accurately in the SRS. If you can’t be
precise, agree to a process to generate the necessary precision. This often involves some form of
prototyping, in which you work with the developers in an incremental and iterative approach to
requirements definition.
Responsibility #4: To make timely decisions
Just as when a contractor builds a custom home, the analyst will ask you to make many choices and
decisions. Such decisions include resolving inconsistent requests received from multiple users, making
trade-off s between conflicting quality attributes, and evaluating the accuracy of information. Customers
who are authorized to make such decisions must do so promptly when asked. The developers often can’t
proceed until you render your decision, so time spent waiting for an answer can delay progress.
Responsibility #5: To respect a developer’s assessment of cost and feasibility
All software functions have a price, and developers are in the best position to estimate those costs
(although many developers are not skilled estimators). Some features you would like included in a
product might not be technically feasible, or they might be surprisingly expensive to implement. Certain
requirements might demand unattainable performance in the operating environment, or they might require
access to data that is simply not available to the system. The developer can be the bearer of bad news
about feasibility or cost, and you should respect that judgment.
Sometimes you can rewrite requirements in a way that makes them feasible or cheaper. For example,
asking for an action to take place “instantaneously” isn’t feasible, but a more specific timing requirement
(“within 50 milliseconds”) might be achievable.
Responsibility #6: To set requirement priorities
Most projects don’t have the time or resources to implement every desirable bit of functionality.
Determining which features are essential, which are important, and which are nice to have is an important
part of requirements development. You are responsible for setting those priorities, because developers
can’t usually determine a requirement’s priority from your perspective. Developers will provide information
about the cost and risk of each requirement to help you define priorities. When you establish priorities,
you help ensure that developers deliver the greatest value at the lowest cost and at the right time.
Respect development’s judgment as to how much of the requested functionality can actually be
completed within the available time and resource constraints. No one likes to hear that something he or
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she wants can’t be completed within the project bounds, but that’s just a reality. A business decision has
to be made to reduce project scope based on priorities or to extend the schedule, provide additional
resources, or compromise on quality.
Responsibility #7: To review requirements documents and prototypes
As we will see in Chapter 14, formal and informal reviews of requirements documents are among the
most valuable software quality activities. Having customers participate in reviews is the only way to
evaluate whether the requirements demonstrate the desired characteristics of being complete, correct,
and necessary. A review also provides an opportunity for customer representatives to provide feedback to
the requirements analysts about how well their work is meeting the project’s needs. If you aren’t confident
the documented requirements are accurate, tell the people responsible as early as possible and provide
suggestions for improvement.
It’s difficult to develop a good mental picture of how the software will actually work by reading a
requirements specification. To better understand your needs and explore the best ways to satisfy them,
developers often build prototypes of the intended product. Your feedback on these preliminary, partial, or
exploratory implementations provides valuable information to the developers and helps ensure that the
requirements are well understood. Recognize that a prototype is not a working product and allow the
development organization to convert prototypes into fully functioning systems.
Responsibility #8: To promptly communicate changes to the requirements
Continually changing requirements poses a serious risk to the development team’s ability to deliver a
high-quality product within the planned schedule. Change is inevitable, but the later in the development
cycle a change is introduced, the greater its impact. Changes can cause expensive rework and schedules
can slip if new functionality is demanded after construction is well under way. Notify the analyst with
whom you are working as soon as you become aware of any change needed in the requirements.
Responsibility #9: To follow the development organization’s requirements change process
To minimize the negative impact of change, all participants must follow the project’s defined change
control process. This ensures that requested changes are not lost, the impact of each requested change
is analyzed, and all proposed changes are considered in a consistent way. As a result, good business
decisions can be made to incorporate certain changes into the product.
Responsibility #10: To respect the requirements engineering processes the developers use
Gathering requirements and making sure they’re correct are among the greatest challenges in software
development. There is a rationale behind the approaches the analysts use. Although you might become
frustrated with the requirements activities, the time spent on developing the requirements is an excellent
investment. The process will be less painful if you understand and respect the techniques the analysts
use for gathering, documenting, and ensuring the quality of the software requirements. Feel free to ask
analysts to explain why they are requesting certain information or asking you to participate in some
requirements-related activity.
WHAT ABOUT SIGN-OFF?
Reaching agreement on the requirements for the product to be built is an important part of the customer-
developer partnership. Many organizations use the concept of signing off on the requirements document
as the act of customer approval of those requirements. It is important that all participants in the
requirements approval process know exactly what sign-off means.
One problem is the customer representative who regards signing off on the requirements as a
meaningless ritual: “1 was presented with a piece of paper that had my name typed on it below a line, so I
signed on the line because otherwise the developers wouldn’t start coding.” This attitude can lead to
future conflicts when that customer wants to change the requirements or when he is surprised by what is
delivered: “Sure, I signed off on the requirements, but I didn’t have time to read them all. I trusted you
guys—you let me down!”
Equally problematic is the development manager who views the sign-off process as a way to freeze the
requirements. Whenever a change request is presented, he can point to the SRS and protest, “But you
signed off on these requirements, so that’s what we’re building. If you wanted something else, you should
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have said so.”
Both of these attitudes fail to acknowledge the reality that it is impossible to know all the requirements
early in the project and that requirements will undoubtedly change over time. Signing off on requirements
is an appropriate action that brings closure to the requirements development process. However, the
participants have to agree on precisely what they’re saying with their signatures.
More important than the sign-off ritual is the concept of establishing a “baseline” of the requirements
agreement, a snapshot at some point in time. The subtext of a signature on a requirements specification
sign-off page should therefore read something like this: “1 agree that this document represents our best
understanding of the software requirements for this project today. Future changes in this baseline can be
made through the project’s defined change process. I realize that approved changes might require us to
renegotiate the costs, resources, and schedule commitments for this project.”
Some shared understanding along this line might help alleviate the friction that can arise as the project
progresses and the requirements oversights are revealed, or as marketplace and business demands
evolve. Sealing the initial requirements development activities with such an explicit agreement helps you
forge a continuing customer-developer partnership on the way to project success.
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